New Delhi, July 2 -- LONDON - A Category B gaming machine in a British high street betting shop generates roughly the same kind of problem gambling risk as its equivalent on an online platform. The tax treatment is not the same at all. The Social Market Foundation wants to change that, and the Betting and Gaming Council spent Tuesday making clear what it thinks will happen if the government listens.

The SMF report, published July 1 and written by chief economist Gideon Salutin and senior researcher Richard Hyde, proposes doubling Machine Games Duty on Category B electronic gaming machines from 20 percent to 40 percent. The target rate mirrors the Remote Gaming Duty that online gambling platforms have paid since April 2026, when the Labou...